Place-making at Pompeii: inscribing practices and spatial strategies in an ancient city

The places where passersby, visitors, and inhabitants of public and private spaces encountered parietal inscriptions exist not only in space but in time. In other words, when a marking is produced (a particular point in time) and consumed (across many moments in time) is just as important a factor in forming a view about the meaning and impact of the graffiti and dipinti found at Pompeii as where the markings are located. By examining places where and when markings were made, this chapter will explore the ways in which places resonate suggestively with the locations in and on which graffiti are distributed and the extent to which graffiti and dipinti mediated the quotidian interactions of children and adults inhabiting Pompeii’s epigraphic and urban landscape.